Geochemistry of Precordillera serpentinites, western Argentina: evidence for multistage hydrothermal alteration and tectonic implications for the Neoproterozoic–early Paleozoic
Keywords:
Mafic-ultramafic belt, Mid-ocean ridge, Listvenites, Cuyania terrane, Chilenia terraneAbstract
Serpentinites are a powerful tool to evaluate mantle composition and subsequent alteration processes during their tectonic emplacement. Exposures of this type of rocks can be found in the Argentine Precordillera (Cuyania terrane) and Frontal Cordillera, both located in central-western Argentina, within the Central Andes. In these regions are outcrops of a Neoproterozoic to Devonian mafic-ultramafic belt composed of serpentinites, metabasaltic dikes/sills and pillow lavas (with an E- to N-MORB geochemical signature) and mafic granulites, spatially associated with marine metasedimentary rocks. The serpentinite bodies consist of lizardite/chrysotile + brucite + magnetite, with scarce pentlandite and anhedral reddish-brown Cr-spinel (picotite, pleonaste and spinel sensu stricto) as relict magmatic phases. The original peridotites were moderately-depleted harzburgites (ultramafic cumulates) with an intermediate chemical signature between a mid-ocean ridge and an arc-related ophiolite. Whole-rock REE patterns of serpentinites exhibit enriched REE patterns ((La/Yb)CN=13-59) regarding CI chondrite with positive Eu anomalies. These features are the result of an interaction between hydrothermal fluid and serpentinites, in which moderate temperature (350º-400ºC), CO2-rich, mildly basic hydrothermal fluid was involved and was responsible for the addition of Ca, Sr and REE to serpentinites. The presence of listvenites (silica-carbonate rocks) in the serpentinite margins allow us to infer another fluid metasomatism, where low-temperatures (<250ºC), highly-oxidized, highly-acid fluid lead to the precipitation of silica. The association of these metasomatized serpentinite bodies with neoproterozoic continental margin sucessions and MORB magmatism at the suture zone of the Cuyania and Chilenia terranes suggests the development of an oceanic basin between them during the Neoproterozoic-early Paleozoic.Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright
The commercial rights of the printed and online versions of Geologica Acta are property of the UB, ICTJA, IDAEA and UAB, and Geologica Acta must be cited for any partial or full reproduction.
The opinions and conclusions stated in each article are the exclusive responsability of the authors and do not necessarily coincide with those of the above mentioned institutions UB, ICTJA, IDAEA and UAB.
Author Rights
Authors retain the copyright on their papers (accepted manuscript, uncorrected proof and published paper) and are authorized to post them on their own Web page or their institutional repositories. In all cases, the complete citation and a link to the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) of the article must be included.
The authors can use excerpts or reproduce illustrations of their papers in other works without prior permission of Geologica Acta provided the source of the paper including the complete citation is fully acknowledged.
Papers are distributed under the Attribution-Share Alike Creative Commons License. This license allows others to alter, remix or build upon a paper and the resulting work may be distributed under the same or similar license to this one.